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A review by kai93
Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era by Saul Austerlitz
3.0
It’s a bit hard to peg this one. Some bits of this book were really, really well-done. Others, though, were decidedly less so.
There were some interesting peeks into the production and writer’s rooms. Yet a large amount of time was dedicated to basic episode recaps with no real further commentary. Other recaps were accompanied by opinionated commentary presented as gospel fact. There were some episodes and arcs curiously missing. Others were ever-so-briefly touched upon but never really explored. The author had an almost unnatural way of speaking: odd turns of phrase (used more than once), always going for the million dollar word when a fifty cent word would have sufficed. This is not me lamenting the use of big words- it is of using the biggest, most obscure word every single time.
It would have been nice had the cast been in on the book as well as the production team. Even some of the supporting cast would have had some interesting stories to add. There was one instance where the addition of Tate Donovan to the show was mentioned. Based on the preamble seemed certain that a story or two of his would follow. It all build up to... a couple of sentences about the cast groaning at his nervous lack of reaction to a practical joke.
The end of the book, the last chapter in particular, was a bit of a slog. All-in-all this was a decent but flawed trip back in time.
There were some interesting peeks into the production and writer’s rooms. Yet a large amount of time was dedicated to basic episode recaps with no real further commentary. Other recaps were accompanied by opinionated commentary presented as gospel fact. There were some episodes and arcs curiously missing. Others were ever-so-briefly touched upon but never really explored. The author had an almost unnatural way of speaking: odd turns of phrase (used more than once), always going for the million dollar word when a fifty cent word would have sufficed. This is not me lamenting the use of big words- it is of using the biggest, most obscure word every single time.
It would have been nice had the cast been in on the book as well as the production team. Even some of the supporting cast would have had some interesting stories to add. There was one instance where the addition of Tate Donovan to the show was mentioned. Based on the preamble seemed certain that a story or two of his would follow. It all build up to... a couple of sentences about the cast groaning at his nervous lack of reaction to a practical joke.
The end of the book, the last chapter in particular, was a bit of a slog. All-in-all this was a decent but flawed trip back in time.